Disclaimer: I do not own The Hunger Games. They belong to Suzanne Collins.
Note: Time to round out the second decade of the morbid, gruesome Hunger Games. I'd say so far the story and the start of underlying plots have been going well, perhaps better than I had expected in all honesty. I guess the question now is, which decade of Games has been better? The first or the second? Feel free to let me know, I'd love to hear what you all think. Until then, time for more bloodshed!
Katniss and Peeta looked over the face of the Victor at their feet,as if sizing him up.
"Another Career," Katniss noted. "Twenty years of Hunger Games and Two won a quarter of them. When did all of the Districts have a Victor again?"
"I can't remember when Ten had their first," Peeta replied, uncertain. "But I know that Six was last. I think it was the thirty first... the one with 'the kick'."
"Gale rather liked that one," Katniss said, faintly snickering. "Know anything about Boulder? He looks about as strong, big and formidable as his name implies. Typical Career."
"I saw a postcard with him on it once. He... isn't the kind of Victor one would forget quite so easily, even amongst other Careers," Peeta said, looking over Boulder's stats.
"Why is that?" Katniss asked, curious.
"He had dwarfism," Peeta explained. "He stood at three feet and four inches, so they say."
20th Annual Hunger Games
Name: Boulder Atherston
Gender: Male
District: 2
Age: 18
Kills: 4
In District One he is laughed at.
The citizens of One see off their tributes for the year – two truly beautiful murderers by the names of Ring and Emerald – with smiles and applause. If ever there was a year for back to back victories it is this one. With Bronze on the mentoring team (and as arrogant, cruel and skilled as he was a year ago) the odds look to be in their favour once again.
It all comes down to the other tributes, especially those from District Two. The Ones are loathe to admit to the facts as they stand, but District Two are without question the most powerful District when it comes to the Hunger Games. They boast the most Victors after all.
But, upon seeing the reaping recaps that night, the people of District One laugh and laugh, thinking their neighbours in Two must have been overdosed on morphling when the tributes were chosen. The girl who volunteers, Xarrax, is certainly formidable and clear to be the biggest threat to One this time around.
But when the male volunteers and mounts the stage there is only mocking laughter, candid insults and scathing pointing made in response.
The boy stands only a little over three feet tall and his steely confidence that he is ready for anything that may come only serves to increase the mockery.
"I'm sure right now the people of One are laughing at me. Maybe the other Districts are too," the boy says as the escort passes him the mic for a moment. "I'd just like to tell them that big power can come in a small package and I'll be the one laughing once I'm on my Victory Tour. Let's go."
The Ones do not take him with any amount of seriousness. Aside the obvious fact that Boulder is more of a 'pebble' to put it ever so bluntly, they claim he looks too casual, too friendly, too approachable to stand much of a chance. Even a few of the Outliers seem like they might be able to throw him around like a basketball of some kind.
They promptly stop laughing over a week later when Boulder shoulder bashes Emerald off a cliff to the whirling waters below without breaking a sweat.
In District Three he's met with sighs of relief.
The citizens back in the Technology District, all downtrodden and hopeless, are not the sort to expect a Victor any time soon. Perhaps never. They're the rational sort who see the facts, good or bad, and resign themselves accordingly. With only one Victor who barely defeated his last opponent in an era before the yearly pack of at least four killers, they don't have much hope to hold out for a victor to occur in this particular year.
The unlucky tributes on the train that year, short Orbit and asthmatic Coder, feel their tears starting up all over again once the reaping recap footage shows off the good looking killers from One. Honorius, no longer arrogant and mainly just dismayed most days, finds it hard to think of this as anything besides a year of defeat in the making. The only one who ever got close was suicidal Socket and she intended to die all along.
But when they see that the boy from Two is so small this year, even smaller than Orbit, he begins to
wonder if fate may have granted him a small boon.
"He doesn't look so tough," Coder hesitantly says after watching her past self wailing on the reaping stage.
"He's even smaller than I am," Orbit remarks.
"That's a good thing," Honorius says, pouring out coffee for himself and his tributes. "Your odds don't just come down to your own skills but also what the rest of the playing field can do. At a glance, he doesn't seem so tough at all. Don't be fools and assume him as an easy kill... but we can all agree he's got nothing on Sextus last year."
The recaps pass by, but the tributes from Three can't help keeping in mind how this year's boy from Two is so small and nothing like the burly brutes of years gone by. He's even smaller than the tiny boy from the First Games unlucky enough to be reaped before Careers existed.
They agree that it may be worth it to try and gang up on him to kill him off last. Slaying a Two would impress the sponsors, they reason, and being from one of the weakest Districts they need all the support that they can get.
The pair ally and become fast friends, thinking that they may just have a chance after all in this brutal contest they've been forced into.
The relief ends and grim reality sets in for the pair and for Honorius when Boulder easily throws Orbit off of himself and stabs Coder to a quick, clean death twenty seconds into the Games.
In District Four he is ignored.
Four isn't the kind of place that pays much attention to tributes from other Districts. With their own tributes generally lasting a long time there's rarely any reason to do so. This counts most of all for the parade where the other tributes hardly even exist in the eyes of the sailors and swimmers from the Fishing District.
It's not a bad parade for Four this year, their boy Titanic and their girl Ariel being dressed up like a God and Goddess of the sea, and the Capitol citizens all agree that Four is quite the hit at this early event. Hope and a sense of District Pride is felt by all those living across Four.
While their attention remains mostly with Titanic and Ariel, it doesn't do any harm to briefly glance at the competition this year. The District has to stop and pause for a moment, wondering briefly why only one person is standing in the District Two chariot this year.
It takes a few moments before they see the tip of the Two boy's head poking over the front of the chariot, almost completely out of sight. His viking helmet is deemed as more notably than what little of him they can see.
The parade comes to an end with the tributes being taken into the tribute building, the Capitolites cheering as they go and chattering excitedly over the death looming in the days ahead. They and the people of Four all agree that Boulder gave one of the weakest showings out of all twenty boys from Two who have entered the Hunger Games thus far. Even the girl from Six who walks on crutches was more of a standout.
With both of the tributes from Four allowed into the pack this year the Capitol and Four think Boulder will be very much an afterthought. Easily the first of the pack to die.
They're both stunned into a complete and utter silence when the trumpets sound twelve days into the Games with Boulder as the last one standing, panting in exhaustion as Titanic lays dead with his head crushed.
The clever runt allowed the others to overshadow him and wear themselves out long before the finale.
In District Five he is tolerated.
The interviews always go in District order, boy before girl, so it will be a while before the Fives get to see how their own tributes, a smart pair of power plant workers, are holding up after several days since they left the somewhat safe-ish borders of their home District.
It's as ugly of an affair as can be expected. Emerald talks about her love of knives and exactly how she plans to show it, Ring proves to be a master of making all kinds of horrible leers for the camera (Bronze taught him well) and Xarrax leaves several youths and even a few adults pissing their pants from sheer terror of her beastly power.
In contrast Boulder is actually rather friendly and chill in his own interview. He shakes Mortimer's hand, talks in an relaxed and composed way and never once tries to act like a brute or a sociopath in the making.
Instead he talks about life in the academy and how he handled it.
"What you've got to understand is that coming from the quarries automatically makes you a person of a lower standing than somebody like Xarrax, who came from a family of soldiers if I recall things correctly," he says, crossing his legs. "Being short like I am, I'm probably the least popular person at the academy."
"But they still chose you to volunteer this time around," Mortimer notes. "How come?"
"Because I was the best man for the job," Boulder replies, giving a short nod. "On the one hand, yes, I'm short and people like to play 'midget tossing' with me against my will. On the other hand I scored a ten and I know how to read people. I'm confident."
"The rest seem to think that they're better than you," Mortimer says with a rather nasty smirk. He was never one to like 'broken people', one could say. "What if they are right?"
"The Games haven't started yet," Boulder says, smiling almost pleasantly. "If they kill me, they're better. If I kill them, then I'm better. But to be honest, it's not about kill count; it's about being the last one. A marathon, not a sprint. Anyway, enough about that, to my count I have about a minute left and I'd like to talk about Baron. A truly great Mentor with unwavering faith in me. I'm grateful for his help."
His humble nature and desire to beat the odds reminded the Fives of themselves, in a technical sort of way. They weren't proud folk and wanted to beat the odds set by the Capitol, so out of the strong pack this year they found Boulder the one least worthy of hating.
Too bad it was clear that he was going to end up dead by the time the days ended. As unlikely as a win for District Five was, a win for Boulder seemed hard to comprehend. Especially with Xarrax being so formidable.
They could only gasp in absolute shock when, driven by terror and the most agonising of desperation, seven of the Outliers charged Xarrax in one go and tackled her down, knives in hand. By the time her allies moved in the girl had already been gruesomely stabbed to death.
Boulder looked unsure how to feel, torn between some pity for his District Partner and relief that his most dangerous opponent has fallen.
In District Six he is one of many.
The people of Six have no hope for getting a Victor any time soon. Maybe they never will. After Chev's defiance that monstrous girl from Two has made sure to have her beasts kill the Six tributes year after year in the opening seconds. They never stand a chance and on the one occasion one of them got out of the starting area in the tomb arena she just died to a trap in under five minutes.
They have no reason to care and every reason to feel hopeless. They care about the boy from District Two about as much as they care for the tall girl from Eleven. Not even a bit. Their tributes died in the bloodbath as usual, so what reason do they have to continue caring about the outcome? Even during mandatory viewing they don't show any emotion.
They just watch, all but the wailing families of the dead unaffected, as the bloodbath comes to its grisly close and the cameras give some great shots of the arena this year. It's a barren, rocky island surrounded by a stormy sea with thunderclouds up in the sky. Rains falls as soon as the cannons finish firing, the water helping the blood spread around the rocky ground faster.
It doesn't matter to the poor citizens of District Six what the arena terrain is. It certainly doesn't matter that Boulder wisely suggests his alliance tie some of the supplies down in case the looming storm becomes severe, only to be ignored.
Their tributes are already dead, their corpses being taken from the arena by the hovercraft. This arena has already become pointless to them.
In District Seven he is despised.
It's the third day when their only tribute, a fifteen year old by the name of Autumn, is found by the Careers deep in the caves that run through the rocky island. The District watches, paralysed in fear for the poor girl, as she hides behind a pile of rubble with her face turning blue from how much she is holding her breath. The pack seem to pass by, not noticing any trace of her as they progress deeper into the caves.
Autumn flees the area as fast as she possibly can, wasting no time in putting distance between herself and the Career pack. Her District cheers her on, thinking for a few wonderful moments that she might be able to evade the pack and flee somewhere else or, better yet, block the entrance to trap the Careers inside the cave.
But instead she falls down dead, killed instantly by a throwing knife to the heart from the short boy from Two, who had been left behind by his aloof allies. He doesn't spare a single glance at the fallen girl as he progresses deeper into the cave, calling out impatiently for his alliance to come back.
As another family breaks down in grief, soon told to shut up by the Peacekeepers, the people of Seven find themselves only able to view the small boy with hatred and wish death upon him for what he just did. Surely a whelp like him is inevitably going to die sooner or later, especially with the storm getting worse and worse.
They don't get their wish, instead being forced to watch as Boulder survives being blown around by the merciless storm that erupts later that day and surviving a lethal drop down a cliff by clutching onto the cliff face for over three hours.
When he leaves the arena, Seven as a whole make plans to throw rotten vegetables and some chunks of tree bark at him on his victory tour. Plans that go off without a hitch.
In District Eight he is the source of comedy.
Every Hunger Games has a moment that tends to be most remembered. The bloodbath of the First, the release of the mutts in the fifth, Crystal outrunning the boulder in the Fourteenth and so on.
For the Twentieth, the thing that has Eight howling with laughter is when the massive boy from Eleven grabs hold of Boulder when he is separated from the pack after the initial outburst from the storm and drop kicks him like a football.
The tiny boy soars over eight meter through the air until he comes to a landing in a crumpled heap, moaning in pain.
It's not much, but it does serve as a distraction from the deaths of their own pair this year. If they cannot win, then at least they can get some of the agony out by laughing at the freaks who trained up for this blood sport.
They remain laughing months later when Boulder passes through District Eight on his Victory Tour, asking if he came down with snow on him and making plenty of kick related puns.
In District Nine he is appreciated.
No Career would ally with somebody from Nine. Not at this point in the Hunger Games, and Boulder is no exception to that. He has his place in the pack, his stealth and keen ability to scavenge for scraps to feed them all keeping him from being dropped out of what remains of the pack on the eighth day – himself, Titantic, Ring and Emerald.
All the same, he's at the bottom of the pack and he's just as aware of it as the audience are. The question is, what will he do about it? Will he do a thing before it's too late?
He's no real factor to the Ninth District of Panem, whose attention is better spent on their chameleon of a boy. An expert hider and a natural with a bow and arrow.
A boy who is starting to slip up on his stealth due to hunger and fear. It's desperation that leads him to take a shot at the Careers in hopes of getting a sponsor to maybe send him a steak or even some crackers.
Boulder hears the whistle of the arrow and knows it's coming before it skewers through Ring's neck. While Titanic and Emerald panic and start shouting, he also knows exactly where Judd is hiding.
He gives him a wink and discreetly gestures for him to run. The boy does exactly that, giving Boulder a brief nod.
Just like that Boulder's spot in the pack is just a bit more secure, both of his comparatively bigger allies wanting him on their side against the other and District Nine feels immensely grateful he didn't rat out their remaining tribute. A classy show of mercy and some sense of honour.
When Judd is killed two days later, it's not from Boulder. The District of Grain has no reason to hate him more than any other tribute, so they don't.
Their two Victors don't either. They're too busy secretly plotting rebellious ideas and working out who is safe to include to this dangerous idea.
In District Ten he is given some very begrudging respect.
The Tens grow more bitter and grim with every year that passes with no Victor and two more corpses for the Tribute Graveyard. They have come close before, only for a better armed tribute to take it away or simple bad luck taking the life of their would-be Victor.
All the same, they have to admit the little ankle biter from Two has serious guts to be able to wrestle with a big crab mutt and walk around without any sign of bleeding.
In Eleven he is a surprise neither welcome nor unwelcome.
It comes down to Boulder and Titanic, the pair meeting mere hours after Titanic dispatched Acorn from Eleven. The boy limps, but still stands taller and stronger than Boulder does.
The second drop kick Boulder is put through only further proves this.
It's David VS Goliath as the pair struggle and scrap amidst the nasty and violent storm that hits the barren island. Both battle hard and viciously, not going up for a moment in spite of the pain. Boulder suffers a nasty cut across his leg. Titanic receives a grisly stab to his hip. Both have their noses broken.
"You're tougher than I thought," Titanic pants, gripping his sword. "But you're tiny. You lack any kind of size! No... muscle...!"
"I don't... need any..." Boulder wheezes, swaying on his feet for a moment. "I have the only muscle I need... my brain..."
"Is a brain... even a muscle...?" Titanic asks, gasping for air before he staggers closer to Boulder.
"Doesn't matter," Boulder says, expertly throwing a rock above where Titanic is standing.
Rocks cascade downwards, knocked loose from the impact, and in moments Titanic dies as his head is crushed under the debris. It's as quick as it is gruesome.
It was hardly the outcome Eleven had been resigned to, and based on Boulder's weak chuckles and commentary about how he knows the academy must be shocked, it wasn't what Two had expected either.
Eleven ends up not caring. Whether this boy was a sadist or a gentlemen, the fact is he trained for this murder game, willingly entered and won't earn any love from the Agriculture District.
In Twelve he is envied.
Not because of the fact he proved a lot of people wrong who claimed his size made him feeble. Not because he looks set to be a popular Victor. Not because he is going to be living the life of wealth and glory, one he intends to share with the friends he grew up with in the quarry mines, and not because his Victory means that Two has won a quarter of the Hunger Games so far.
No, they're jealous because he's alive and the two starving little kids the Capitol kidnapped from their homes this year are dead, having suffered highly painful deaths. The boy at the business end of Ariel's trident and the latter because of an aggressive crab mutt.
Everybody clears out the instant that mandatory viewing is over, hoping the next year won't come around too quickly. Why hope for it to be a lucky year when it's clearly not going to be anything but more deaths and grieving families?
Even the fact Boulder grew up poor and has an awareness, in some way, of what life in the Mining District is like doesn't mean a Games damned thing.
In the Capitol he is swarmed.
Everybody wants to meet the newest Victor and Boulder doesn't get a moment of peace. Seeing the crowds has Rook quick to flee the area and leave the newest Victor to his fate, only Baron preventing the Capitolites from accidentality trampling on Boulder in their hype.
It all leaves Boulder dizzy and overwhelmed. Baron does his best to keep his Victor from being swamped by too many at once, but Olga makes sure to keep people going over.
She's quick to point out how, unlike Rook, Boulder is a good and proper Two Victor with full Capitol loyalty and knowledge of the rules along with a willingness to follow them. It seems Two is only going to get more power and favour by the next year.
Perhaps enough for her to start making the move to replace Mr Overwhill within the next few years. The bitter man was always somebody she'd privately admit pissed her off with how entitled he was.
All the hustle and bustle over District Two and their status as the 'best District' makes everybody miss the Victors from Nine shake hands with Isobel and both Honorius and Duke doing the same.
A decade has come and gone, and factions are ever so slightly starting to slowly emerge...
In District Two he is accepted.
He won the Games and he won them the way the District feels they should be played. Strength and without any sort of fear or giving up. He proved wrong everybody who spoke against him and so the height jokes go away. They are not the sort of District to argue against what is obvious.
Boulder waves to the crowds with a humble smile, taking his homecoming with stride and a sense of satisfaction. He achieved what he wanted and intends to keep the mentoring team strong for years to come. After all, plenty of quarry workers out there need to be given a chance to succeed in life, and if the only way to do so is to win the Hunger Games like he did then he'll do his best to mentor them through it all.
He relaxes amongst his quarry rat friends on the porch of his house in the Victor Village, all with a fine beer in hand as they toast to Boulder's victory and to their grand District as a whole. One or two of his pals even playfully toast to Boulder being a human football, a jest he chuckles and admits to have had coming. He did, after all, kill a few tributes.
As Baron proposes to Runa on the porch of the house two doors down from his own his friends break out into wild applause for the Victor couple, surely to become the most talked about celebrity marriage since forever, while Boulder heads back inside.
What's a proposal celebration without some fine champagne?
He mutters a rather foul curse when it turns out the Peacekeeper who delivered the goods put the champagne out of his reach.
Boulder feels many, many things about himself when all is said and done. But if he was told to pick just one word to describe his journey then he'd have to go with 'accomplished'.
"Honestly...the idea of a small young man like him representing District Two just... what..." Katniss trailed off, more confused than anything else. "I'm more used to them being like Cato. Tall, monstrous and scary to look at. Always five foot eleven at least."
"Well it was the second decade of the Hunger Games, soon to be the third. Things were quite a bit different back then," Peeta said, keeping a moment of silence for Boulder. "Shall we keep moving?"
"May as well," Katniss said with a short nod. "Let's begin the next decade of this depravity."
The pair moved a few paces down the street, soon coming to the next Victor of many upon the sidewalk. A boy with a fairly cheeky expression looked back at them, his hair put into a wild ponytail and a scar or two marking his left cheek.
"Jack Tylos," Katniss said, reading the name under the face. "He seems cheerful."
"I'm sure his time in the arena was the opposite," Peeta said, quietly.
Not all Careers fit the mould. If anything, I love to break the mould and in this case I figured that going against the typical 'burly brute who may or may not be on steroids' appearance of D2 Males would be a good idea. Thus, we have Boulder, a Career with Dwarfism which honestly I've never seen as a combination before. I hope that he ends up as another decently well received Career Victor, but I'll let you sll be judge, jury and executioner per the norm. Any thoughts on the human football? Haha, well anyway, two decades down and still plenty of Victors left to go. Stay tuned for more!
Stats
District 1: Peridot Gaudy (8th Games), Crystal McCree (14th Games), Bronze Marley (19th Games)
District 2: Baron Overwhill (4th Games), Runa Peace (7th Games), Olga Machete (10th Games), Rook Valiant (17th Games), Boulder Atherston (20th Games)
District 3: Honorius Perthshire (5th Games)
District 4: Museida Selkirk (3rd Games), Mags Flanagan (11th Games)
District 5: Shunt Gaspar (12th Games), Isobel Sparks (18th Games)
District 6: N/A
District 7: Pliny Aransio (2nd Games), Fir Buzz (9th Games)
District 8: Woof Casino (16th Games)
District 9: Mizar Aldjoy (1st Games), Gwenith Rosebud (13th Games)
District 10: N/A
District 11: Bear Redfoot (15th Game)
District 12: Duke Saint-Rose (6th Games)